IF NOBODY else is going to congratulate West Coast for the way the club has handled the whole Ben Cousins saga, I will. Fantastic job.

Likewise to the AFL. Well done.

While the spotlight has been on Cousins' return to football — cruelly prevented by a hamstring injury on Friday — the key issue to me has been the integrity with which those charged with making it happen have conducted themselves.

It's been a difficult situation because there is no prototype and no protocol for what to do when one of the game's elite players succumbs to substance abuse.

Yet the club and the league have emerged with credibility not only intact but enhanced — all because they were prepared to stand on their digs and fight for what they believed in.

This is not about one player and what he's done. It's about the principle and the fight against substance abuse. The fact is that together, the Eagles and the AFL have set Australian sport down a path that hopefully will encourage those in positions of influence to take the fight up to a phenomenon that threatens the very fabric of the world.

Sound a bit melodramatic? Perhaps. But that's how important this is.

The Eagles and the AFL have made a statement with a giant exclamation mark that substance abuse is not cool. It is unacceptable.

West Coast, too, has made a statement to the football world that will stand the club in good stead. While other clubs at times waver on what they really stand for, West Coast now has a clearly defined vision.

The Eagles identified what the club is all about, what they want to be, the sort of people they want involved in their club, and the levels of behaviour they expect.

If you don't mind, I'd rather applaud that level of purpose, direction and leadership than condemn it.

They didn't discard the player at the core of the issue. They supported him on the basis that his wellbeing was more important than any game of football. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, they will reap the benefits by having a great player doing what he does best.

I think the Eagles will win the 2007 flag. This show of strength will have been an important step along the journey after the club was in apparent turmoil when the Cousins situation erupted less than four months ago.

The AFL, too, stood and fought. Under siege from the Federal Government, and from just about anyone and everyone else, it was true to its policy on substance abuse and what it stood for — that player welfare, education and counselling were more important than being seen to be like "big brother" with a big stick.

Remember, at the outset of this regrettable situation, the AFL was the only sporting body in Australia that tested players for illicit drugs out of competition. The AFL has created its own path, and a path that already others are beginning to follow.

Now, the National Rugby League has an illicit drugs policy. Hopefully, other sporting bodies will follow suit.

Hopefully, it will start with the Australian Institute of Sport, where the World Anti-Doping Agency policy allows for in-competition testing but doesn't provide for an out-of-competition assault on the very issue that this is all about.

I'd like to think that the Federal Government might actually meet the AFL and might offer some encouragement and recognition. Canberra could say "well done" on starting something and bringing awareness to the community of our fight on drugs.

Everything starts somewhere and the AFL put the wheels in motion. The public now knows the AFL is fighting the fight. If enough good people get behind it, the fight will gather momentum.

As the battle against substance abuse continues, we might find a better way. In time, the AFL policy may be refined. It may be better. But, most importantly, it will survive. It will survive because of the efforts of the Eagles and the league itself.

It took a lot of courage to stand for this principle and they have shown exactly that.

It started with a coach and a match committee who were prepared to take a stand. It grew through an administration and a board that was prepared to back that stand, then a league hierarchy that did likewise.

It took tremendous courage for Cousins to stand and fight, too. Sure, he didn't have a choice if he wanted to play football. But he recognised he'd made a huge mistake. He didn't run and hide and he didn't surrender. He did what he had to do to overcome it. Now he's rehabilitated and soon he'll be back playing.

Most importantly, he is healthy. That's the system working as it is meant to work.

It's a system that helps rather than hinders, that offers advice and counsel and it gives hope and understanding. It acknowledges that one error of judgement by an impressionable young man who just happens to be an elite footballer doesn't have to be the end of a sporting dream.

I'm hoping the good news story that Ben Cousins has become will survive. That he will not succumb to further temptation and instead will flourish and join the fight against substance abuse and become a spokesperson himself.

There's nobody better qualified to show the way — one who has seen the dark side and returned to join the side of good and healthy.